Patchwork Cards seek cure for offensive woes

CRAIGMORGAN

FS Arizona

TEMPE, Ariz. – With only a short practice on Monday, the
Cardinals have had a much-needed six-day break to heal some wounds following Thursday’s loss in St. Louis.

A few injured players returned to full practice on Wednesday, including right guard
Adam Snyder and quarterback
John Skelton; defensive tackle
Darnell Dockett, tight end
Todd Heap and running back LaRod Stephens-Howling were limited, but improved.

More to the point: Can a patchwork line that has allowed 17 sacks the past two games protect quarterback
Kevin Kolb enough to aid a passing game that will need to carry the Cards while two backup running backs find their way?

“It’s always a combination,” quarterback Kevin Kolb said when addressing the unit’s protection woes. “Obviously, the line, they get blamed for it. It’s on me. It’s on communication from the very beginning … from the backs, the tight ends. It’s a team effort. It always is.”

Coach Ken Whisenhunt acknowledged that protection has been a focus this week.

“We’ve got to do a better job in our protection schemes and we’ve got to do a better job in our techniques,” he said. ‘That’s what we’ve been working on, and we worked on it some more today.”
TAKING THE TEMPERATURE

Following blowout losses the past two weeks -- 52-28 by New England; 45-3 by San Francisco – Bills coach Chan Gailey was asked if he was concerned about the morale of his 2-3 team.

“Sure you are,” he said. “You’ve got your head in the sand if you don’t worry about confidence, morale, all of those terms that we all use. I addressed it with the team and what we reminded them is that they’ve (rallied) before.”

Gailey said he hasn’t seen any signs that the coaching staff may be losing the team, but “they’d have to answer that.”

With regard to his 31st ranked defense (449.4 yards per game, 35.2 points per game), Gailey said a number of problems have plagued the unit from not getting up the field in creases to missed tackles.

“It was really more of the same from the week before and that’s not encouraging,” Gailey said of Sunday’s loss in San Francisco. “We’ve got to get back to basics. Sometimes we’ve got some guys trying to do things that we don’t need for them to do.”

“We stink,” Williams said. “We have stunk the last two weeks. There’s a difference between being disappointed and discouraged. We’ve got a lot of football left to play, but that being said, we have to get a lot better fast.”
INJURY UPDATE